Design

All eligible children registered with the anganwadi worker were enrolled over a period of six months from July 1995 to January 1996.

All the subjects were then contacted a second time six months later.

Subjects

There were 1061 children (48.3% girls and 51.7% boys) between the ages of 1.5 to 3.5 years.

Results

The annual incidence rate (IR) per 100 child-years for respiratory, diarrhea and skin diseases and pneumonia were 167,79.9,30.6 and 9.6, respectively.

When compared to other seasons, the IR of pneumonia was lowest in the winter months (October to February) while those of diarrhea and skin diseases were the highest in summer (March-June) and monsoon (July to September) months, respectively.

Season specific diseases were measles in summer, and fever as the isolated symptom in monsoon.

The IR for combined morbidities was the highest in the monsoon as compared to winter months.

Conclusions

Season specific intensification of existing health care resources for these morbidities can be considered.